Palin Has No One But Herself to Blame for Criticisms
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in Palin
Years from now, I wonder how we’ll remember Sarah Palin. Politicians are an odd lot to begin with. But, even in that club, Palin is unique in her peculiarities. How can any office holder suddenly resign and then be surprised and offended when people try to uncover some hidden scandal? Hidden (or very public) scandal is by far the leading cause of office holder resignation!
Palin is still being coy about whether she is planning a 2012 run at the presidency. To me, this reservation is ridiculous. There are only two passable reasons for her not to finish her term as governor. 1) She is 100% done with politics. 2) She wants a head start on getting her party’s nomination. As for 1, if she’s done, she should succinctly say so, leaving no room for wiggling. If she’s running for higher office, she should also say so – forget the typical politician habit of denying a presidential run until the fifteenth visit to Iowa. You can’t just give up your governor’s seat and not admit to your future plans. “Erratic†is not a quality Americans look for in a president.
Palin has certainly been the recipient of some nasty, petty attacks in the past. But the criticism coming out after her resignation is not some smear campaign by her critics. It’s the inevitable result of her odd decision and the rambling, unfocused explanation she tried to give. Palin may want to play the victim here, but, this time, she has no one to blame but herself.
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July 7th, 2009 at 10:37 am
I totally agree about this, and would also add this; some columnists and bloggers are overly concerned about her being attacked on the basis of her gender. She has been on the receiving end of some very nasty misogynistic attacks, but this isn’t the crux of the issue.
The GOP picked her out partially because she was female and they LIKED the beauty pageant angle and all that. Lots of candidates get smeared unfairly, both women and men. I don’t at all condone her being called terrible names but its just a fact there are crazies out there that don’t know any other way to criticize a woman. Were working on that collectively. But Palin has presented herself as a pretty go-getter…a dynamic woman who can cook, clean, govern and breastfeed. So fine, do it already. Lots of us do. You are either the real deal or you aren’t!
Thanks for the post. This just gets my goat, you know?
July 7th, 2009 at 10:45 am
I disagree. I think you’re going in a bit too much for the media perspective that “we all have a right to know, and to know right now.”
Palin might provide a compelling explanation later, and if she does, then all of the current strurm and drang will be simply sound and fury signifying nothing.
Palin has become a lightning rod. And a polarizing figure. That has been bad for her prospects, bad for her family, and probably not all that useful for the state she was supposed to be governing, either.
It is quite true that the dominant culture does in general look serious askance at those they classify as quitters. It creates a taint, one that is hard to excise from your image. Perot never overcame it. Neither did Scottie Pippen. But others have. They used to say there are no second acts in American politics, but the last 30 years has proven that to be no longer true.
Personally I don’t mind this nearly as much as most other folks. First of all, no one is irreplaceable. Life goes on, because it must. And if I believe someone has just cause to declare “screw youse all,” I am generally fine with that.
I don’t know what constellation of motivations led Palin to resign. I can only speculate. But if I ask myself whether or not Palin might have had just cause to say “screw youse all,” I feel certain she did.
So suppose she comes back in a year and says something like this:
July 7th, 2009 at 10:50 am
That was essentially how I understood her speech. She indicated, as I read it, that she was going because she had done everything she had set out to do, and had become a lightning rod that was costing the state money and distracting people from the real business of the state. What we’re seeing in the critical response to Palin’s departure is a whole lot of confirmation bias, all-but universal presumptuousness about the reasons, and very little real interest in understanding the decision. It’s been a bipartisan failure, but a failure nevertheless.
July 7th, 2009 at 11:20 am
Palin as president of the RNC. Discuss.
July 7th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Yeah kranky, I guess that you’re right, that would sound pretty reasonable. Is there really all that much serious speculation about her though? I’m hearing a heck of a lot more from comedians and comedy websites than from news with standards. That’s fair too though – she’s pretty darn funny.
July 7th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
I think your entitled to your opinion, even if it is wrong.
I think you need to sit down and read a little more because it seems you
are speaking from not only an uninformed position, but from a position of Ignorance.
That said. Don’t worry about Palin, let her take care of herself and don’t worry about Alaska, they can handle her being gone.
Just worry about the other states who can’t handle it now and damn sure won’t be able to handle it in the coming three years.
Or don’t worry at all, just lay back and enjoy it.
Or you could just buy more ammo.
Papa Ray
West Texas
USA
July 7th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
uninformed is by definition ignorant isn’t it?
July 7th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Simon, I can buy everything except the “done everything she wanted” bit.
In my experience this is such boilerplate language for bailers that I think it must be in the PR handbook for such circumstances. Pure toro poo-poo if you ask me. I have never heard a public figure say this and believed them.
July 7th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
There is not reason she would want to say if she is running at this point. It is always better to keep your options open this early in the game. This is even more true since in 2016 she may have a better shot at winning and age isn’t an issue for her. Better to take the Newt route of making $$ for your opinions and speeches and decide somewhere down the road when there is better data.
In the end for her to be a viable contender she still is going to have to find a way to appeal to moderates in both parties and overcome her reputation. It’s doable, but increasingly it is going to take a lot of hard work.
July 7th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
The Word: Uninformed is, in fact, the definition of ignorance. But Ignorance – that’s a different animal. The “I” is capitalized. This is profound Ignorance, almost sentient.
Papa Ray: Buy more ammo? Is this somehow a threat?
Didn’t someone threaten all the “liberals” a couple of weeks ago in the comments? I’ve been seeing more and more of these threats from hardcore right wingers. Perhaps we should talk about that.
July 7th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Even Palin’s defenders are left trying to guess what the hell she meant. There’s a reason for this: in addition to her many other negatives, she’s incompetent. She couldn’t stage her own exit without making a mess of it.
July 7th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
Some of the media went after Palin a little too enthusiastically. As a result their bias showed. The woman has faults (like we all do), but they enjoyed attacking her !
July 7th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/
Link may not be accurate in a couple minutes, but the headline is 7 out of 10 republicans would vote for palin.
Does that scare anyone else?
Paul – has anyone else made a bigger fool out of themselves, except for sandord or whatever that dude’s name is?
July 7th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
70% of 25% of the population.
At this point polls are mostly just name recognition anyway. They didn’t poll on X because we don’t yet know who X is.
July 7th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
[...] Also: The Daily Palin, The Train Wreck From Wasilla, Palin Has No One But Herself to Blame for Criticisms, Like A Grizzly With Cubs, If By “Grizzly” You Mean “Quitter”, And By [...]
July 7th, 2009 at 10:48 pm
You mean like besides, oh, Bill Clinton, who got his dick sucked by a dumb intern and said it wasn’t sex. Or Joe “gaffe machine” Biden? or Gary “you’ll never catch me” Hart or Dan “potatoe” Quayle?Or Newt “I’m divorcing my wife with cancer” Gingrich? Or Ronald “the bombing starts in 5 minutes” Reagan. Or GW “I’m against nation-building” Bush? Or George HW “read my lips no new taxes” Bush?
I mean seriously. Dude.
Politicians make fools of themselves all the time. They are actually people just like us.
July 7th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
Nicely and succinctly put.
July 7th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
Kranky-
Newt is actually a twofer in your list of shame. He used the blowjobs aren’t sex defense decades before Clinton.
July 8th, 2009 at 9:04 am
7 out of 10 Republicans would vote for her…for president? Holy crap. Now, I give people a pass (barely) for voting for McCain/Palin in November of 2008–there was so little known about her, but if people can seriously say today they would vote for her, then there is absolutely no hope for them.
As for KK’s list, there is a difference between foolishness, lying, or mispeaking.
Bill Clinton is a lier and a fool, and I wouldn’t vote for him again even if he were running against Jeb Bush. Gary Hart was a cad and doesn’t get my vote, either. Newt “I’m divorcing my wife with cancer†Gingrich?
Dan “potatoe†Quayle? A boob.
In defense of Ronald “the bombing starts in 5 minutes†Reagan, (and I cannot believe I am defending him, it was an off microphone comment that was meant as a joke.
George HW “read my lips no new taxes†Bush’s going back on his pledge might have been political suicide, but he might be the most responsible politician in recent memory, not for flip flopping, but for recognizing the situation had changed and making a decision because of those changes.
I don’t think I need to go into GW, another lier who doesn’t deserve anyone’s vote.
Palin, though, is GW-squared. She lies and lies and lies again and because the base supports her she thinks its OK. She rambles. She has the intellectual curiousity of a grasshopper. She thinks the rules don’t apply to her. She is a quitter.
If she is not done as a serious political candidate for the GOP, there is no hope for the Republicans. This may come as a shock, but I want the Republicans to be a strong party. I want them to counter balance the excesses of the Dems.
But if 7 of 10 people still think Palin is someone worth pulling the level for, there is no point in saving the GOP; best to just blow it up and start all over.
July 8th, 2009 at 9:11 am
I don’t really care if presidents screw around, or go back on their word, or even lie a bit. I’m not a Republican, I’m a pragmatist: just do the job.
If by the time a president leaves office the constitution is safe, we haven’t gotten into too many major foreign policy debacles, people are just a bit freer than they were, and the budget’s no more of a disaster than strictly necessary, that’s enough: job well done.
By pragmatic standards Bill Clinton was a success. So I don’t care where he put his dick.
July 8th, 2009 at 10:07 am
There are about a half-dozen things I could say to that last sentence that would probably get me banned, so I will just stifle the urge.
I could argue that Clinton made some TRAGIC mistakes that ought to make you doubt having voted for him–NAFTA and signing the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act–for example.
Clinton looks good only because he wasn’t George W. Bush, but at best he was only an average president
July 8th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Michael R
I normally agree with the content of your posts. However, your statement “by pragmatic standards Bill Clinton was a success” I take issue with. The further we get away from the Clinton Presidency it becomes more and more clear how truly awful he was. Clinton signed the repeal of the Glass Steagall Act, loaded his administration with investment bankers to numerous to mention, helped deregulate most aspects of the financial industry, and in large measure helped create this fine economic mess we now find ourselves in. In sum, I thought he sucked as a President. Atleast he sucked less than Bush – but sucked none the less. And that whole Monica thing was as ridiculous a notion as the thought of Sarah Palin running for president. A media shit storm created for the digestion of the media.
July 8th, 2009 at 11:43 am
Glass – Steagall wasn’t repealed so to speak – it was drastically changed by the signing into law of the GLBA (Graham, Leach, Bliley Act) in 1999.